To be Revamped: Maelstrom Mercenary: Sun and Ice
by Uzumaki-sama011
Summary: Naruto didn't hate living in Remnant. It wasn't a perfect place sure, but it had its perks. There was the awesome technology and movies. The cool weapons everyone wielded. And fighting with Ice Queen senior was becoming his favorite pass time. Now he just had to stop the darkness from swallowing the world and kick out Grimm. Simple, right? To be Revamped.
1. Prologue: Onset

_**This is a little idea that won't seem to leave me alone to write what I want to so I decided to put it down. I may continue it if there is actually any interest.**_

* * *

 **Story Fandom:** Naruto & Naruto Shippūden / RWBY AU  
 **Story Title:** Maelstrom Mercenary: Sun and Ice  
 **Story Genre:** Adventure, Humor, Action, Fantasy, Drama, Romance  
 **Story Rating:** Rated M for Mature Content  
 **Story Ship/Pairing:** Uzumaki Naruto x Winter Schnee  
 **Story Author:** Uzumaki-sama011  
 **Story Size** ( predicted): _large_ _(100k+)_

"Ah yes, the White Fang. Quite a fancy costume they have." - Speech  
" **Rasengan (Spiraling Sphere)** " - Technique Name  
 _Ware annei chitsujo o nasu mono._ \- Thoughts

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 **Anime Law #3 - Law of Sonic Amplification, First Law of Anime Acoustics -** In space, loud sounds, like explosions, are even louder because there is no air to get in the way.

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 _For all of humanity's achievements, advancements and accomplishments, Remnant remained a grim and hostile world, one that seemed intent on testing the mettle of whomever it could, whenever it could. Having been born into it at a time of strife, mankind and their genetic cousins, Faunas, were quickly forced to battle for survival against the soulless minions of darkness that roamed the world of Remnant, devouring anything that possessed a soul. The conflict against them was long and hard on the newly-fledged species, quickly cutting down their numbers as more and more of them fell to the seemingly endless hordes of dark beasts._

 _But then, one day, amidst the struggle for their right to exist, mankind discovered Dust, a substance that allowed them to tap into the unrivaled power of nature and tame its fury. They used this power to push back against the hordes and conquer the world. And with their victory over darkness secured, they became the undisputed rulers of the planet, building mighty empires and spreading their numbers, their influence throughout the world._

 _But, as they would soon learn a lesson, no light can exist without shadows._

 _The darkness returned, now hiding inside man's heart._

 _Their empires, their ruling nations rose, succeeded, evolved and failed through his's newly found, unquenchable thirst for war and conflict._

 _Wars splintered the lands and man's hearts, birthing malcontent, greed and doubt._

 _Just as mankind began to self-destruct on itself, the hordes of darkness, its minions, returned._

 _Mankind – now weakened and mistrustful of one another – was eventually overrun by the seemingly endless armies of monsters and subsequently driven out of their largest territories. Humans and Faunas alike were forced to hide behind the walls of the four remaining Kingdoms of Atlas, Vale, Vacuo and Mistral, where the largest portion of the Remnants now lived while the darkness' minions, terrifying beasts of endless hunger known as Grimm roamed the countryside, always looking for more humans to devour, more emotions to feast on, more terror to spread, more death to bring._

 _But, as the darkness would soon learn, even the smallest glimmer of hope can grow into a blinding light that shines across the world._

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 _ **Maelstrom Mercenary: Sun and Ice**_

 **Prologue:** Onset

 _"The loneliest moment in someone's life is when they are watching their whole  
world fall apart, and all they can do is stare blankly."_

 _—F. Scott Fitzgerald_

 **~-~-~ ஜ۩۞۩ஜ** **~-~-~**

Remnant was a bitch place to live. It was surprising to see humanity continue to progress in such a harsh world despite the unfavorable circumstances surrounding life in it.

And survive they did, even while they were constantly threatened by their demise. They rebuilt and redeveloped their society from ground up. They evolved their technologies and found new ways with which to fight back against the ever-clawing darkness reaching for their hearts, all the while recolonizing lands once lost in what history perceived to be the single greatest catastrophe in recorded history. A period of darkness when Grimm siege of human civilization became unyielding, their numbers unending in their assault. Or at least, that's what some of the stories claimed.

One of the many communities scattered throughout the Lost / Wildlands was a town that went by the name of Coalfell, named after an old wife's tale that the author would leave at your own discretion to decipher. It was the center of trade in the local region, sitting on top of a seemingly unending mine of coal that people who inhabited the Lost had much use for, unlike the Kingdomers who relied on Dust for seemingly everything. To make things even better, the mining/trading town was surrounded by many miles of fertile lands that were being actively farmed for food and other produce.

Coalfellians, the mule headed lot, refused to even consider relocating or pray tell; making an alliance with one of the Kingdoms despite the fact that the forces of Grimm were an ever-growing threat that wanted to come down to massively murder them all. A fact they were proud of. Publicly.

It was humanity's stubbornness at its finest.

Inside the limits of this prosperous settlement that looked like a mix of middle age construction and semi-modern technology, leisurely walking down a paved street with hands crossed behind his head was a young, blue eyed man with a mane of short, wild and spiky blond hair that scattered to whichever direction it fancied. His clothes consisted of a black jacket with a row of dark orange stripes going down the sides over a white T-Shirt, dark navy blue pants and a pair of combat sandals with two beige pouches hooked onto a belt behind his back.

This was Uzumaki Naruto, a student of the Legendary (Perverted) Toad Sage, one of the shinobi of Konohagakure no Sato and the Orange Hokage-to-Be.

Or, at least, that's who he was supposed to be.

Seeing as he was no longer in the Elemental Nations, not even in the same world actually, those names and callings meant as much as jack to anyone he ever asked.

Here he was simply known as Naruto Uzumaki, name first apparently, mercenary for hire.

While it _was_ a far cry from his old reputation as the Hero of the Hidden Lea, Naruto was never one for tittles.

He never cared for any of them beyond wanting to become Hokage that is...

Naruto did everything; from the usual D ranks (which he both hated and respected) straight up to Grimm extermination. He did everything in record time, besides the jobs that would go against his morals. He wouldn't assassinate someone just because he wanted to make a quick buck, that just went against everything he fought for. Not that he refused to kill, when you were born and bred to defend your village at any cost, you accepted that sometimes a few dirty deeds had to be done, that they were necessary to keep the people safe. Naruto simply saw no reason to stain his hands with the blood of those who don't truly deserve it.

Pervy Sage always said how this compassion of his would either doom him in the ninja business or make him shine through like no-one before.

Naruto thought he was doing pretty fine so far.

Being stranded in another world notwithstanding; and what a strange world it was. Countless demons roamed the planet with only one goal in mind; the destruction of humanity and anything they created. It was because of them that humanity has holed themselves up inside 4 Kingdoms that shared the burden of being the last bastions of civilization... or something along those lines.

It sounded a bit too much like propaganda for Naruto's tastes, something that the 5 ruling villages of his world were more than familiar with. Even the Will of Fire was, at its core, a way to influence the Leaf ninjas into doing things they normally might not have done.

Let's just say that Naruto has had a long time to reflect on his past.

Nonetheless, these Kingdoms ruled the world of Remnant at large and the closest of them was Mistral, Naruto's biggest source of income.

From what he managed to overhear when working for Mistral officials, their ruling Council was planing to reclaim a large portion of the Lost. They frequently hired or contracted people like Naruto - people that knew the layout of the land - in hopes of them aiding their _Men at Arms_ and _Huntsmen_ in securing zones of interests or to open diplomatic relationships with the free settlements, where they were setting up anything from simple outposts and mining operations to massive forts that would help stave off Grimm incursions. Luckily for the Uzumaki, the calling of a ninja ensured one excelled in terrain traversment so he acted the part of a guide. He was oft hired by the Mistral Academies wanting to give their students some real, harsh experience against the forces of Grimm, and the Wildlands - what people in the Lost refereed to the rest of the Lost - were full of them. The more experienced Huntsmen sometimes bid him to escort them when venturing deeper into the Lost, either because they needed help scouting out the area or because they wanted to have an off-the-grid traveling companion who can hold his own in a fight.

Naruto didn't care as long as he got paid.

A wry smile appeared on his face.

To tell the truth these gigs weren't that much different from the usual missions he used to take back home since they often went to shit, but they lacked that ...something.

He had nothing to fight for, nothing to keep safe; nothing to come to back after the day was over.

His dream of becoming Hokage was shoot.

Fucking Akatsuki.

Fucking Zetsu.

Fucking Kaguya.

Fucking Kamui.

Fucking end of the world apocalypse bullshit.

That bunny eared bitch of a goddess just couldn't take losing like a normal person.

Nooooo, she just had to open up one last dimensional portal and chuck the blond and his angsty, brooding rival through it before she was encased into a brand new moon, courtesy of Sasuke and yours truly.

Hmm... now that he was thinking about it, he still had no idea what happened to Sasuke.

Maybe he'd gotten lucky and ended up in a dimension full of never-ending ramen.

Mmm.

Ramen.

He missed Ramen; nobody in Coalfell knew how to prepare it, and even if they did they lacked the ingredients to do it. Meanwhile Naruto was more likely to poison himself than make an edible meal so he didn't even try. He refused to desecrate such a holy meal with his heathenish cooking.

Sighing mournfully at the devastating lack of his favorite noodle dish in the local cuisine, Naruto looked up at the broken moon. The sun was all but gone over the horizon. He reasoned that it would be best to seek lodgings for the night and resume his task come dawn. It wasn't like the job he was lined up for next would disappear if he delayed it a bit, it was self-appointed. He didn't get paid for it with anything besides personal gratification and to attempt to do it in the middle of the night was just asking for trouble. Powerful he may be, he knew how dangerous Grimm could be at night. They had superb senses and were drawn towards negativity like moths to flame. Kurama was the incarnation of destruction and malice, one he housed.

It could not end well.

So, with that in mind, the blond shinobi stuffed one hand into a pocket as he switched directions, slowly strolling towards the local inn while languidly waving to some of the locals that by now respected him despite his 'Faunas traits'.

The way people treated Faunas - which were merely humans with some extra animal parts, most of the times cute - in this world was a sore topic for Naruto that he likened to avoid. He didn't have the patience nor peace of mind to take any shit from folks that treated other people like trash for such senseless reasons, having been on the receiving end of similar discrimination in his pasts due to events out of his control. So what if some people had dog tails or cat ears. Kisame literally had gills on his neck and the Aburame clan housed entire colonies of insects inside them. To Naruto they were just as human, even if Kisame was extremely bloodthirsty and Shino was just fucking creepy.

The inn was a small, double story structure that was entirely made out of wood, the first floor being one huge saloon hall where drunken celebrations were a norm while the second was dedicated to housing travelers and a miniature back garden where they grew potatoes of all things. Homebrewn alcohol was a thing here. Naruto casually stepped through the front batwing entrance and scanned around, seeing only a couple of the older patrons in attendance as he approached the bar counter before sitting down on a stool and bringing out his Lien filled wallet.

"Hey Saff, got a minute."

The Uzumaki asked, his question directed at the man standing behind the counter who was just a bit older than him, dressed in non-descriptive brown clothing with his back turned towards the entrance.

The man raised a hand in a lazy backhanded wave before pulling out a bar mop from somewhere and rubbing it over a mug in his other hand.

"Naruto, I didn't expect you to be back already. What can I get you?"

"Got a room for me? I just got paid yesterday from the office up at Fort Fontral, so time to clear that tab as well."

Saffron snorted even as he raised the glass mug in front of an overhanging light to check for any smudges, tilting it this way and that way.

He was meticulous like that.

"Why are you even asking me that anymore?" the bartender could practically feel the odd look on his back as he explained, "You sleep here so often you might as well own one of the rooms. And for the record, your tab is smaller than what most of the locals drink in one sitting. For someone who can't get drunk you really don't know how to take advantage of your gifts in life." Feeling sufficiently happy that the ale mug was clear from any moist blemishes or other imperfections that might taints its glass surface, Saffron threw the graying mop over his shoulder before he turned around to face Naruto with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Besides, it's not like everyone here owns you a debt of gratitude or anything like that." the brunette spoke rhetorically.

Naruto opened his mouth to rebuke the statement, but Saffron raised a hand to stop him.

"Shut up and take the praise. Seriously, most people would be milking the situation for far more than it's worth. You're just punching my consciousness whenever you insist on paying." he grumbled and threw Naruto one of the room keys that were hanging from the rental board right beside him, "Here, and try not to wake everyone up with your damn snoring. It's supposed to be quiet at night."

Naruto rolled his eyes, "Yeah, yeah, whatever. You just sleep too lightly."

Saffron gave him a pointed look, "I'm getting complaints from the peddlers about a great rumble in the night that keeps waking them up, among other comments that filter their way to me from unhappy folks." he crossed his arms and leaned back against the drink cabinet, "In short, you are singlehandedly costing me my business as well as neighborhood goodwill. Mr. Winchester is this close to shooting you."

"Hey, it's not my fault you have such thin walls!" Naruto retorted indignantly, waving a hand around randomly to indicate the thin wooden structure.

"But it is. You should get yourself a muzzle if you plan on staying here... Hmm... Better yet, take up Sienna's hints, I'm sure she'd lend you some from her personal stash. She's into kinky shit like that. You two being foxed wouldn't hurt your chances dude." the blond shivered at the man's lecherous grin, perfectly aware of what sort of hobbies the fox chick was entangled in.

"...You're such an ass."

Saffron raised his chin at the insult.

"The finest."

 **~-~-~ ஜ۩۞۩ஜ** **~-~-~**

 ** _The next day..._**

The following morning was ...uneventful, that is, as uneventful as Naruto's wake ups were on a normal day.

Seeing as the blond haired Uzumaki had to run for the hills as soon as he stepped foot out of his room or risk getting 'molested' by a far too affectionate Faunas Vixen, it said a lot about the wacky shit he got into on a regular basis. So, after successfully escaping the clutches of the horny seductress by sacrificing an all too giddy clone who got to die via a tit choke, and really, what were the chances he would find himself somewhat settling in the only town for hundreds of miles to house a Kitsune intent on 'marking' him, Naruto set out for Scelestus Forest at high speed.

Now he was jumping from branch to branch while attentively scanning the ground for any signs or clues of his targets, having spread out a contingent of clones to help him scout through the forest as quickly as possible. He was firm in his opinion that this place was creepy and disturbing, so much it could rival the unvenerable Training Ground #44 any day of the week. He'd also convinced himself over the years that the forest was tailor made to kill things. Some of the examples of this odd ecosystem-engineering curse included, but were not limited to: poisonous foliage as far as the eye can see, traps, Grimm infestation, more poison.

Almost every single bush, leaf, berry and thorn was filled with a venomous cocktail that could down an adult in matter of minutes, killing him within a day unless treated. To top it off the venomous vegetation was exceedingly dense at the floor level in Coalfell's direction (and only in its direction), to the point that some parts of the woods were impossible to traverse through on foot without liberal application of explosives. Then there were also numerous pitfalls filled with spikes and all manner of sharp pointy things disguised and concealed from plain view by a light grass-like canopy to account for as well.

Naruto was also pretty sure that those pitfalls were killer plants in disguise. The theme seemed to fit.

Did he know for sure? Nope, and he didn't want to find out.

Did he mention that all of it, from grass to trunks and the occasional apple, was purple?

Because the forest was fucking purple and he didn't want to stay in it any longer than absolutely required.

Shaking his head to clear those thoughts away Naruto returned his mind to task at hand. He was tracking an unprecedentedly large pack of Beowolves, made up of at least two hundred individual Grimm. It was uncommon for such large gatherings to roam so close to settlements without attacking them and the jinchuriki was aiming to exterminate them before they happened to stumble across one of the freefolk's outlying cottages. Those people were hunters and foragers by trade, since Grimm didn't normally hunt animals unless provoked by them and there was a fresh water lake close by that animals water trough. Similarly wild flowers, fruits, berries and plants found in these parts that weren't poisonous - and some that were - fetch quite a price in the Kingdoms.

Eventually Naruto began to bore.

Just as he was about to take a break, having descended down to the ground, he was hit by an uncomfortable smell.

Feeling his gut pinch, the blond rubbed his nose in discomfort as he stopped in a crouch. Looking around, he headed where the smell was stronger. He further focused some of his chakra into his nose in an attempt to pinpoint the source while reaching behind him into his weapons pouch and pulling out a kunai, flipping it in his hands so he was holding it out like a sword. He'd never taken an interest in kenjutsu but one didn't need to know 'proper' forms to be effective. Sasuke was taught by a master of sword-fighting and Naruto could still hold him off with nothing but a kunai and some sharp reflexes. Basics ruled.

It didn't take him long to find the source of the smell after he enhanced his nose.

It was like he'd expected, unfortunately.

The smell of iron - the smell of blood - was coming from a pair of dead travelers lying in a small ditch. Not very dramatic nor a rare sight, but still disturbing to the one who wanted to save as many as he could. Judging from their choice of clothing they were merchants from Vale. Rich ones at that, probably Dust peddlers though the lack of a cart or any carrying bags put holes into that theory. They were still wearing their jewelry and other expensive items so it didn't look like it was a robbery.

Naruto let go of the chakra in his nose, lowering its sensitivity. Their bodies had only recently started to decompose and it reeked. He could tell from looking at the blood-filled foam leaking from their mouths and noses.

It wasn't a pretty sight by any means. Still, it did mean that they haven't died too long ago.

What were they doing this far from the caravan trails was anyone's guess.

Naruto crouched, moving closer in order to get a better look at their injuries as he used his kunai comb through their clothing. It was obvious that their wounds weren't inflicted by Grimm; the kills were too clean and the wounds were too sharp, too precise.

They weren't caused by claws, but by blades. They were killed by someone. Murdered.

"What a waste." Naruto muttered to himself, looking around to see if there were any tracks he could follow towards the culprits before frowning when he saw none. The blond planted his hands on his knees and stood up, taking a couple of steps back before putting his hands in the Snake seal and focusing on his chakra. A slab of earth rose in front of him, painfully slow - causing the blond's right eyebrow to twitch - before closing over the dead bodies in an impromptu burial that would shield their remains from animals and the elements.

He sighed.

"What's wrong with people in this world. I mean really, they have an entire species of monsters they could rally themselves against, yet they still choose to hurt one another." he muttered the question to himself, rubbing his forehead.

" **Why does it surprise you?** " his tenant's deep, groveling voice asked as it spoke in the back of the blond's minds, a weak whisper really, " **Humans are a corrupt species. They are spiteful creatures. This is something you cannot argue against Naruto. They are constantly at war, constantly fighting, killing, dying, leaving a trail of hate and pain everywhere they go. They were doing it before I was created and they will continue to do it as long as they exist. Even across other dimensions.** "

Naruto remained silent, his friend's word weighing heavily on him.

He didn't know what made Kurama change his mind about humans again, he'd been doing a great job of convincing the mass of malice how there was hope for them back when the war was still going on. It was just... the general situation in Remnant, in the Wildlands and Kingdoms too was a bitter pill to swallow that held back some of his arguments. In some ways this world was even worse than his own despite the fact they were enjoying an era of peace.

The morose silence that filled the area didn't get to last long when suddenly, a loud, wailing shriek (like a hundred banshees crying out at once) tore through the air.

Naruto's eyes snapped towards the direction from where he could tell the sound was coming from. He failed to hold back his astonishment when a _missile_ of all things, a ridiculously sized one at that, rose up from the other end of the forest.

After a moment of waste and baffled staring Naruto was already jumping back up into the trees towards the top. From there the blond eyed the weapon in flight - which was already almost a mile above the sea level - mentally charting out a flight trajectory before pulling out a small & portable, high-power monocular from his other pouch on his hip. It was a sunny day with a spare few clouds scattered across the skyline, allowing the sole _Shinobi_ in Remnant to quickly find and see just what the heck was the missile aiming for.

Naruto's face gained a considerable frown when he recognized the shape of the targeted object as a Dragonfly, a high-altitude airship.

Even as he watched the flying ship attempt to evade the supersonic missile a second high-pitched shriek assaulted his eardrums, making him wince.

The Dragonfly launched countermeasures and fired its point defense Gatling guns, successfully downing the first missile before it could hit but the second missile managed to slip through using an undergoing trajectory that hooked it underneath the airship's defense coverage before smashing straight into a wing pylon, causing a massive explosion of blue and white energy. It seemed that the vessel didn't have any defenses covering its belly.

It was a Dust weapon. Just peachy.

Naruto cursed softly as secondary explosions ripped through the airship's side making it list to the side. The massive transport started rapidly descending, a large trail of smoke following behind it.

The only reason it wasn't already falling at terminal velocity was its other pair of wings.

Putting his monocular and kunai back into their pouches, Naruto turned in the direction where he believed the Dragonfly was going to crash - his eyes bleeding red as he pulled on the most feral side of _his_ chakra reserves, not Kurama's - and blasted from his spot in a burst of chakra that caused the wind to ripple in his wake, his earlier task all but forgotten. He just hopped there would be survivors.

XXX CHAPTER END XXX

 **Last Edit:** 25.7.2016.


	2. Crashzone Survival

**Avid Reader** \- I HATE that fucking slime. If he does, he will most likely be an antagonist. I understand his character and why he did what he did, doesn't mean I have to accept him. I don't bash, but I don't exactly pardon either. He's a backstabber and a traitor, nothing else to it. I though he might be correctable after helping Naruto fight Madara and Kaguya, bet then he goes and decides to betray his trust again.

 **undead3** \- Not overblown. Watch the show again if you think so. I just pointed out Naruto's observation that such large packs don't wander so close to human settlements often. For that matter, your everyday dude is essentially one of Junior's Henchmen. Do you see them holding off a Werewolf/Grimm? Thought so.

 **chm01** \- Highly unlikely. If Naruto does get a weapon, it won't be anything fancy like huntsmen-in-training weapons. Something like Temujin's compacting sword, the one that folds into itself, kinda like Jaune's shield. Naruto never cared for exotic weapons like the Kusanagi and Samehada, not to even mention all the badass swords from fillers and games. Also, I explained in this chapter why simply using wind style with them wouldn't work, in case you wanted to bring that up.

 **Harem** \- No.

 **Mingyu** \- It's not really a system (for authors it is), more of a tradition. Where I live most names are derived from the names of saints and kings. While it is a bit strange when someone has a name that doesn't follow this tradition, there's absolutely no reason to point it out. Besides, I have several characters in this story that won't follow the system anyhow. They are kinda... _distinct_ (wink). Trust me, you can't miss 'em even if you tried. They'll pop up here and there after this act.

 **DS** \- Thank you, I try my best. Any errors I make, feel free to point them out. A person can't learn if he doesn't know what he's doing incorrectly and since English isn't my native language there are bound to be mistakes. No, XD, in fact literature was probably my worst subject in school. I barely got Cs on my essays despite writing twice as much as anyone else. Doubtful, my writing style is very time consuming. I write in layers; first I write a 1k chapter. Then I rewrite that chapter, adding scenes, descriptions, actions and conversations where appliable. Then I repeat the process. And again. And again. Aaaand again. The longer a scene is, the more times was it rewritten. Then I go through the chapter and remove parts that are over-saturated, saving them for later. Then I rewrite it until I'm satisfied with the sentence/reading flow. It takes a while. 40 hours for a 5k chapter. Probably why my fics tend to stall.

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 **Anime Law** **#4 - Law of Constant Thrust, First Law of Anime Motion -** In space, constant thrust equals constant velocity.

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 ** _Maelstrom Mercenary: Sun and Ice_**

 **Arc One:** Terminus

 **Chapter One** : Crashzone Survival

 _"If the world didn't suck we'd all fall off."  
\- Anonymous  
_

 **~-~-~ ஜ۩۞۩ஜ ~-~-~**

A forest made of violet leaves, pink flowers and purple trunks would be quite an odd sight anywhere besides in Remnant. In this world the sight remained nothing out of the ordinary, especially while the forest remained in tranquil with the world around it... and then a speeding blur of shadows flickered past, followed by a blast of wind and a vacuum current of displaced air, sucking in anything unfortunate enough to get caught within its sway as the blond shinobi continued on his course. He was intent on making it to the downed airship as quickly as humanly possible. Sure it was incredibly reckless of him to use the **Shunshin no Jutsu** (Body Flicker Technique) to do so, especially his own bastardized version, but he couldn't bring himself to care. The jutsu was never meant to be used in anything besides short bursts but Kurama was being a stingy bastard with his chakra and Naruto had to be there like yesterday. In his Nine Tails Chakra mode, or even in Chakra Cloak, he could simply blitz over there in a couple of minutes, but he wouldn't force the fox to give him chakra when it clearly refused.

The dimensionaly misplaced ninja was only vaguely familiar with this area of the forest and not through a lack of trying. It housed an insane number of Grimm creatures. He must have eradicated a thousand of them by now but more just kept on spawning every. Single. Day!

They would no doubt come down on any survivors with overwhelming force, if they already hadn't.

Right on que, as if the Universe was reading his thoughts, Naruto heard a series of nasty bellows and roars that were characteristic of the creatures of Grimm.

 _That doesn't sound good._

More chaotic sounds reached his ears; sounds of explosions, gunfire and yelling.

Naruto pushed more chakra into his legs, increasing his speed but also straining his muscles in a way that would make his grandmother go aghast before pummeling him into the ground if she was here. Nonetheless, he quickly cleared the distance between himself and the rising smoke column. Arriving at his destination his body shot out of the treetops like a bolt and the blond only had a brief moment to take in the situation; frankly speaking, it was a mess.

The Dragonfly's crash zone was littered with pieces of the airship, huge and small chunks of debris were scattered around the area haphazardly. It had plowed a long trench through the forest when it crashed, its momentum moving the airship through half a mile of earth and solid rock. The actual hull of the airship's wreckage was, more or less in one (disfigured) piece, if one ignored the giant gaping hole in the middle of airship where the port pylon was hit. But Naruto did figure out to whom the airship belonged to; The Kingdom of Atlas, if the presence of Atlesian State Troopers garbed in high-end metal-alloy body armour predominantly colored in a sterile white and grey and helmets that almost completely covered their faces was anything to go by.

It appeared that they were in the process of establishing a defensive perimeter around the Dragonfly's wound, having dragged and set a row of crates around the hole to serve as cover, when they were beset upon by the creatures of Grimm. While a good number of troopers was dead on the outside even more of them were still alive and he'd bet a month's supply of ramen that there were injured still inside.

 **lıllı|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|̲̅̅=̲̅̅|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|ıllıl**  
 _SFV OST : Street Fighter 5 Main Menu_

Naruto reached the full height of his impromptu jump and started to fall. Flipping his body around, the blond reached for his weapons pouch, unhooking the cover. With a twitch of his fingers he sent all but one of his kunai towards the Grimm, nailing one in the head and most of his targets in the back.

Straightening his body, he used the force of his inertia to save a cut-off Atlesian State Trooper from getting mauled like a yesterday's chew toy by a Beowolf, planting his feet on his breastplate and sending the man reeling backwards. Using the cursing trooper like a springboard to get back in the air, the blond delivered a heavy haymaker over the closest Beowolf's head, cracking its thin plate of Grimmbone armour and briefly stunning the monster as the blow rattled its brain. As soon as his feet touched the ground Naruto abruptly turned on his right foot, roundhouse kicking the Grimm into the fray where the its speeding mass crushed three other Beowolves before the monster slammed into a large rock and turned into an inky stain of blood and goo with a squelch.

The sudden commotion attracted the attention of everyone in the area as humans and Grimm alike turned to look at him in surprise. Naruto could almost see the question marks floating above their heads as he gave the Atlesian force a sloppy two-fingered salute, his pearly white teeth fashioning into a grin.

"Yo!"

"..."

Silence...

"Uhhhh...?"

"Where in Oum's name did you pop out from? We're in the middle of nowhere. What are you even doing here?" A distraught voice yelled, Naruto couldn't see to whom it belonged to. The blond huffed, his super-awesome introduction plan he just made up on the fly #1 failing.

"These are the Courthary Wilds, not exactly cut off from civilization but not close to any of it either... or Lost, as you Kingdom people call it. Really, there's too many people living outside Kingdoms to be called that. It's found by now, y'know." he went on before he looked at them like they were dumb, "Besides, don't you know that a hero is always fashionably late."

Several of the white clad soldiers sweatdropped at the comment, even the Grimm momentarily forgot about their never-sating desire to slaughter humans so they could scratch their heads in confusion.

Then something started hissing.

Naruto's eyes glinted with something as he pointed a hand at one of the Grimm that had been hit in the back by his thrown kunai.

Sensing his interest, the monster growled at him.

Flashy Entrance Plan #2 was in affect.

"Boom."

The growling Beowolf promptly exploded into a shower of black corrupted flesh and blood, forcing the soldiers to duck and cover as a chain reaction of dozen explosions rocked the battlefield, injuring or outright killing many Grimm.

For a moment, all was silent.

The the Grimm roared.

"Open fire! Kill these things!"

And so the massive kill or be eaten brawl continued; Atlesian troopers were shooting from their SF58A2 Gauss Rifles, Alteration 2 models with an in-built smart missile/guided granade launcher system, aiming for the heads and supposed hearts of Grimm. Meanwhile, a pair of Atlesian Knights 130B Sentinels, a new model of the standard security android utilized massive, human sized shields made out of thick SDC Dust infused Neosteel to hold the ferocious monsters at bay and allow their human comrades to thin the pack while the Beowolves did their best to kill and destroy them all, and with their numbers they could - and would - accomplish this. It was a good thing the blond dropped in when he did, he was an army killer even without Kurama's chakra boosting his capabilities.

Naruto parried a swipe from a Grimm by ducking and lightly pushing the strafing arm away with a light nudge as he punched the Beowolf in front of him in the throat, effectively killing it. He looked over his shoulder to see the man he had saved just a moment ago sitting up into a crouch while moaning in pain.

The trooper shook his head as he stood up and frantically checked himself over.

"2 arms, 2 legs. 10 fingers, manly body and dashing face? Okay, I'm good, it's all there." he sighed explosively when he was sure he still owned all of his limbs before looking at his timely saviour and nodding his head, "Thanks man, appreciated! Now's my turn! Bowchickabowwow."

A voice managed to break through the loud commotion, boiling with anger.

"Tucker! For all that is holy, shut up! This is so not the time!"

The trooper who's name seemed to be 'Tucker' - who had a single turquoise stripe going over his shoulders and down his arms - ignored the confused look Naruto was sending him as he discarded the gauss rifle he was holding onto and reached for a ...handle?

Stricking a silly pose he swung his arm to the right. Just as it was fully extended two oval shaped, thin blades of miasma blue shoot out of the hilt with a snap-hiss leaving Naruto to stare at the blades in surprise and slight fascination. Just by listening to their buzz he could tell they were a potent cutting tool. With a yell the Atlesian trooper started running at the closest Beowolf, shouting out a loud and exaggerated "Swish!" each time he attacked with his sword.

Naruto, holding an amused grin on his face followed the State Trooper into the middle of the pack, pulling out his last kunai seconds later as he ducked behind a rock, vaulted over it and jumped at an Alpha that was attempting to sneak up on Tucker, who was already surrounded by several Beowolves.

"Swish! Haha, got you!" the trooper cut off an arm with his sword before sidestepping a charge. In the same motion he made a downwards swing, cutting through the Beowolf's armour plating and destroying its brain. "Swish! Next!"

A Grimm roared from beside him, close enough the trooper could smell its breath.

"Stab! Take that!"

The Alpha continued to stalk Tucker while the man switched from looking like a master combatant and stumbling in his steps, earning lucky dodges that saved his ass. Or, it attempted to do as it was at least four times the size of the surrounding Beowolves - Betas and Deltas - it tended to attract attention. It was almost amusing to watch its futile attempts at sneaking. Its body was covered with numerous spikes and plates of Grimmbone armour, many more than even Betas had at their disposal, that served to shield its nimble body with white ribs and kneecaps visible across its pitch black fur.

Sensing the spike of aggressive emotions the Alpha Beowolf turned to face the blond ninja who was almost upon it.

Its eyes glowed with the ferocious glint of beastly intelligence as it threw its arms out, throwing several of the lower Grimm aside and roared. Naruto welcomed the challenge as he descended from the high point of his jump with both of his hands wrapped around his kunai tightly. He focused on his chakra, splitting it in two before grinding the twin halves together in a way he'd accomplished years ago.

With a familiar shrill that forced some of the weaker Grimm to squat down where they stood and cover their ears (allowing the Atlesian troopers to focus their weapons on them and riddle them with bullets), a long blade of wind chakra so potent it became visible enveloped and extended further outwards from his kunai. With a quick downwards slash the chakra blade cleaved clean through the large Grimm and its durable armour without a notice.

Landing in a crouched position behind the large Beowolf that fell in twain with his swordarm (right) stretched out, Naruto rushed forward while swinging his chakra blade around like a whirlwind, cutting limbs and heads alike from the pack of monsters, killing well over two dozen Grimm in just as many seconds. Coming out on the other side of the clearing with a large amount of momentum, Naruto leaned backwards and used his hand as a brake.

Quickly turning around while still in his crouched stance and leaning on his hand, the blond was immediately set upon by several smaller Grimm - Sigmas, the youngest and weakest on record besides Omegas - that were hanging back in the rear of the pack.

Rolling sideways over the muddy ground to dodge a swipe at his head - getting his jacket both nicked and dirtied in the process - Naruto grabbed the offending Beowolf by the tail and yanked it around before throwing it into a tree with a yell, knocking the beast out. Flipping back as another Beowolf attempted to jump him Naruto landed horizontally on the side of the same tree, piercing the knocked out Grimm's skull with a quick stab before looking up. Tensing his legs, the blond blasted himself at the approaching Grimm, literally slicing his way through its body and landing in a roll. Coming out of the roll in a steady run, his grin faded when he noticed one of the soldiers with yellow stripes on his armour get tackled by a Grimm that immediately started mauling at his body with its claws, his comrades struggling to keep the rest of the beasts at bay.

He ducked and weaved through the Grimm, wounding many of them before coming to a stop besides Tucker.

"I go low, you up high!"

"Right!"

Skidding to a halt and helping the sword fighting trooper to kill one of the tougher, near evolved Betas by cutting off its legs while Tucker jumped up and sliced through the monster's neck with his energy sword, Naruto started rapidly twirling his kunai until the wind chakra coursing through it resembled a solid disk of energy.

The shrill it produced grew ten-fold, freezing all the Grimm in place along with most of the Atlesians.

Rearing his arm back the blond threw the destruction disk forward before clapping his hands in his most-used hand sign, forming a pair of shadow clones to clear out the Grimm behind him. The pseudo Rasenshuriken cleaved a straight line through the earth as it passed right in front of the struggling troopers, slicing the dozen or so Grimm that were about to overwhelm them into pieces before continuing to make its way through the forest, timbering numerous trees.

Naruto jumped on top of another Beowolf and used a stage 2 Rasengan that he manifested inside its _skull_ to kill it before using the momentary lull in pressure on the troopers to run up to them, grabbing the attention of the closest one as he grabbed his shoulder and turned the man to face him.

"Who's in command here?" he asked, straight to the point.

The soldier, an older, gruffer sounding male armed with a pump action shotgun with a number of red stripes over his armour frowned at him.

"I am. The Lieutenant is still inside the airship. What's that gotta do with you?" the man asked as he blasted a Grimm with his shotgun, the other troopers having by now recovered from Naruto's jutsu's side-effects and continued to shoot while occasionally throwing glances at the blond when they had to reload.

"Tell everyone to fall back to the ship. My next attack... uh, it doesn't discriminate people from Grimm." Naruto admitted reluctantly. He didn't have the control to make sure everyone was safe from his own techniques, a small consequence of learning the most destructive jutsus he could instead of the most useful ones.

The frown turned into a glare.

"Who the hell are you and why should I listen to you, Faunas? From where I stand my teams are doing just fine."

"Naruto Uzumaki, the guy who's currently saving your sorry buts, that's why. A job that's going to get more difficult the more you argue." Naruto responded bluntly. He didn't care about other people's issues with Faunas directed at him since they were most often dumb and unneeded, and he'd knocked plenty of heads out because of them.

Also for all he knew he might technically be considered a Faunas due to his distinct physiology and circumstances of his birth.

He _was_ born with whiskers after all. Thanks, Kurama.

"Now you wait just a gaw'damn minute-"

"Believe it or not, there are thousands of Grimm inside this forest." that shut up the man's protest quickly, "They will no doubt sense what's going on here and attack us sooner rather than later. Are you really going to argue with me on this? I'm trying to make sure you all survive." he asked annoyed.

Without waiting to see if the man would listen to his orders or not Naruto turned back to the fray, sliding underneath a Beowolf when it was lit up by one of the Atlesian State Troopers' weapons fire. The jinchuriki then started kicking and punching his way through the remaining horde of Grimm creatures while lamenting on his lack of foresight to bring along more kunai. Because he had to spend half his time evading their attacks because he refused to come near those claws without any sort of weapon on hand. He'd seen entire boulders get cut to pieces by Beta Beowolves without effort.

Unfortunately, the one remaining kunai he'd thrown earlier was probably too brittle to be used for anything besides spreading butter now. Circulating such a powerful wind jutsu through anything less than pure chakra conductive steel guaranteed it would become next to useless.

Stopping just out of claws reach of another, smaller Alpha Naruto trusted the troopers to suppress it long enough to perform the first of two steps needed for his next jutsu. Spreading his feet shoulders apart, the blond cocked his fist back and engulfed it in a flare of blue energy.

Then, with a shout of effort, the whiskered blond punched the ground beneath his feet as hard as he could.

The earth folded and visibly buckled from the force. Trees were folded over and ripped out of their roots while the ground cracked and split apart as Naruto's chakra began venting from the cracks like pressurized steam, wounding many of the monsters while heavy chunks of the earth began to jut up just higher than the blond's height, fray together, and warp the field of battle.

 _'Who the hell is this overpowered idiot!?'_ thought a single trooper who was too slow on the uptake and ended up being caught in the quake zone. Now he was forced to _delicately_ balance himself on a piece of rock and concentrate on how the ground beneath him wavered from the maniac's punch. ' _Seriously, who just punches the ground to create an earthquake!? And I thought the Lieutenant was scary strong.'_ If he didn't keep himself stable he could beak a leg, or worse.

' _Screw this.'_ As soon as the man was confidant enough that the ground would stop shaking and no sudden vents of blue miasma would pop out, he made a beeline for the crashed airship where the retards of Red squad were waiting. The monsters roared and went after him, nearly catching up with their high speed but a blonde blur intercepted them as it crashed into the ground, causing another small quake.

The man grit his teeth as more Grimm converged on the yellow blur.

Halfway there he cursed his conscience for not allowing him to take the coward's way out and turned to face the creatures of Grimm, dropping to one knee and taking aim before shooting any Beowolf still visible through the altered landscape, using single shot to conserve ammo.

The blond haired maniac might be crazy but he was clearly doing his best to save them. Then the aforethought maniac ran up to him and stopped just to his immediate right, holding his hands up in some weird pose as he crouched, closing his eyes... while the Grimm were running at them full speed.

The Atleasian private was visibly annoyed.

"What the heck did you do that for you idiot? Now we don't have a clear shot anymore! We were holding out on the Gatling guns to lure them in closer." he yelled, emphasizing his words by firing several rounds at one Beowolf who simply ducked behind cover, causing the trooper to seethe before flipping a switch and firing his last concussive shot over the beast's cover, splatting it into an ink stain. The smallest of Grimm were quickly recovering from the blond Huntsman's (what else could he be with such powers? Even the Lt was a Specialist) earlier stunt and were now turning to focus on the two of them as the rest continued to charge, using the now re-altered terrain to their advantage.

All 96 of them left.

Naruto grunted, slowly forming several hand seals so as to not mess it up. He sucked at any nature manipulation that wasn't Wind style.

"Shut up, I'm trying to concentrate here."

"Well concentrate _faster!_ " the trooper shouted in panic as his rifle ran out of ammo.

The distress in the man's voice didn't help Naruto in any way. He really did need to concentrate for his next jutsu.

Most of the techniques he could pull off in an instant were too dangerous to use so close to friendlies, case in point his earlier attempt to even the odds with wind style. A full-blown Rasenshuriken would rupture their eardrums and blast them away with enough force to crack bones, if they were lucky. He used that jutsu to wipe out _mountains_.

No, he needed something different.

Thankfully, since he was one of the few people not of the Yamanaka clan who could access their own mind at their free will, Naruto managed to dive into his memories and recall the seals his old master once used to trap Orochimaru's summons when he opted to start elemental training, he'd been lucky to catch the sequence.

It was the same jutsu he would use now to give them some breathing space.

His eyes snapped open in the same instant that he slapped his hands to the ground.

" **Doton: Yomi Numa (Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld)** "

The sinking bog that suddenly sprouted from out of nowhere, while certainly wide enough to catch every Grimm still alive in its effects wasn't anywhere deep enough to swallow them up and get rid of them. It acted more like a sticky barrier that the Grimm beasts would have to waddle through than a tomb, slowing the advance of the Beowolves to a resounding halt while dissolving the ground, more specifically, all the rubble his punch brought up earlier and using it to spread further. This was why Naruto had to crack and make the soil more malleable before attempting the jutsu. He hardly had the skills or the experience to utilize earth ninjutsus in pitched battle. Or really any ninjutsu not of his own make.

Unlike when he faced the mother of chakra, there was no hand holding by the Tailed Beasts or Old Sage's chakra to guide his elemental manipulation.

The Grimm collectively growled when they realized the won't be able to kill the squishy humans, their eyes shining with ruby bloodlust.

Sighing, Naruto wiped a brow of sweat from his forehead (pulling off that jutsu at such a wide scale was a torture on his mental strength, this being only the second time he'd attempted it) and looked over his shoulder with a confused look on his whiskered face upon noticing the puzzling _lack_ of gunfire. A tick mark quickly developed on his forehead when he saw everyone staring at the swamp he just made with his chakra with wide eyes.

Thankfully, the private beside him seemed to share the sentiment.

"Hey Idiots! What the hell are you gawking at? _Shoot_ them!"

 **~-~-~ ஜ۩۞۩ஜ ~-~-~  
**

A dozen of bright white lights arranged in a circular, slightly oval pattern shone above a large raised podium placed centrally inside a large building.

The round, grid-like surface of the contesting floor was surrounded by a visible shimmer of the security forcefield that was designed to block kinetic, thermal and dust based energies as to contain the damage and keep the spectators sage. Similarly, a number of experimental hardlight holo-emitters were installed just below the podium's surface.

The light-manipulating technology, only recently developed and still kept close to Atlas' minds was capable of projecting numerous obstacles of choice above them to simulate different battlefields, woodland, urban, desert, mountainous and so on.

This was the place where only the best of the best and the brightest of the smartest received a chance to fight, the most advanced battle stage in existence besides the Amity Colosseum - which doubled as a city. The Atlas' Specialist Academy Depot, founded 47 years ago was a large multi-tier base housing a residential compound for the officers and enlistees in the Specialist Program. It was equipped with numerous testing facilities and research laboratories that received billions of liens in funding every year, conglomerations of the greatest minds in all of Kingdoms where devastating weapons and techniques to be deployed in the fight against the Grimm hordes were being developed daily.

An airfield was located in the east wing, just below the skydocks for the Atleasian Navy where a battle group of sky frigates and a command cruiser were currently docked.

The ASAD premises were also where Atlas' secondary Cross Continental Transmit System tower was constructed in the slim chance something happened to their primary tower. A military minded government planned for all contingencies. The compound was built directly adjacent to Atlas Academy and it was regarded as a highly respected and reputable institution that served as the proving grounds and a training complex for Academy Graduates who expressed the desire to join the Atlesian State Military as Operatives, specialist that received what was widely thought to be the best equipment and most extensive training inside the Four Kingdoms.

Within ASAD's main dueling arena, scattered across the very same podium as mentioned before there was a group of 8 defeated warriors, recently graduated Huntsmen and Huntresses of Atlas Academy.

They were lying on the floor either knocked out or too exhausted to move with bruises and numerous cuts across their bodies, slowly bleeding them of their blood.

"Huntsmen, Huntresses," A sharp and clipped feminine voice started speaking as the forcefield was lowered and several medical hoverbots flew over to attend the injured, beeping and whirling, "Warriors of Atlas, _defenders_ of Humanity." the way she said the word made a number of attendants feel self-conscious, "Those of you who stand here today have decided to pledge yourself to serving Atlas as its elite Operatives. You've all passed the rigorous selection process required and proven yourself fit to upholding the duties that concern. Here, even more so than at Atlas Academy, you will dedicate your skills, bodies, minds and souls to service of order. You'll sharpen them into the toughest of shields, the sharpest spears and most efficient of tools. For those are the obligations - the sacrifices - required of you in order to defend mankind."

The speaker stood at attention in the center of the podium, her gracious pose surrounded by the wounded bodies of 8 would-be Specialists and looking decidedly unharmed. She was a young woman in her early to mid 20's, standing tall at 5'8" with snowy pale skin, medium-light blue eyes and stork white hair tied up in a bun at the back of her head, with the exception of her bangs which were brushed off to the right side of her face and a small lock of hair that reached below her left ear. Her attire consisted of a white-and-pale-blue themed trench coat with a red coloration inside the collar, with sleeves that showed off her shoulders and upper arms, frilling out and tapering in with black gloves. Under this, she wore a blue vest, white shorts, a pair of thigh-high boots and a slightly curved sabre holstered at her hip.

She titled her chin, indicating towards the beaten bodies of her challengers, "Your comrades currently lying on the floor before me believed themselves above the virtues of command and authority, expressing their belief how the system wasn't suited for them. They challenged their superiors for their ranks in the force, spitting in the face of martial honor and integrity that Atlas has upheld for generations." the barest of scowls filtered across her delicate face as she stood in the pose of attention, her hands held together behind her back as she addressed the gathered Graduates who had been watching the duel from the benches with enrapture.

"I am here to tell you how their thoughts were misguided and unacceptable. You will become the faces and shadows of Atlesian might on the stage of the 4 Kingdoms, defending the mantle with your very lives. Such brazen miss-regard for the values we uphold will NOT be accepted." She gave them a serious stare as she scanned the gathered men and women from left to right, judging them. "You are the best and brightest of Atlas. You _will_ act like that or your punishment will be swift and severe. If not by your Company Commanders, then by _me_!"

Then the doors leading outside from the combat arena suddenly slid open with a light hiss as a junior officer clad in a white and grey military uniform jogged up to the top of the podium, receiving interested looks from the young Huntsmen-slash-Specialists-in-training watching.

He stepped close to the lecturing woman, bringing his palm up and leaning towards her ear before speaking in a hushed whisper.

"Ma'am, General Ironwood and Sky Marshall Rafaelle wish to see you in Ironwood's office. It's urgent."

The white haired woman frowned.

"I'm in the middle of a lecture. The greenhorns broke protocol. Gen. Ironwood should already be aware of this." she replied without lowering her voice, keeping a harsh stare at the new graduates.

"Commander, it's about your father."

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ _**END CHAPTER ONE**_ ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

 **SF58** is a cool looking Gauss Rifle I found on Pinterest that looks similar yet different enough to the guns that Atlas robots use in combat. I claim no ownership of the concept art.  
 **The Sentinels** are basically Guardians from Mass Effect 3, only they look like Atlas androids instead of Cerberus soldiers.  
Also, the way the Atlas robots were so easily hacked from one single ship (could be a C&C ship, but doubtful) is something I have a hard time believing. Okay, for the show it was A-okay, but this is an AU work of fiction. Atlas is a military state at its core. Military states are paranoid to the extreme and plan for everything. Did you know that Pentagon has a dedicated scenario and action plan for US armed forces in case of a _Zombie outbreak_? Yes, Zombies. You've heard that right. Think about that for a second.

 **Post Scriptum:** I didn't have a chance to finish RWBY up until recently... How the hell am I supposed to watch Chibi RWBY after the End of the Beginnings? Well, I noticed an article about RWBY manga on RWBY wikia, so might as well.

 **Last Edited:** 26.07.2016.


	3. Peer Bonding Before the Evening

**eniox27** \- I thought the rank would fit more than that of an Admiral, since Atlas operates an air fleet instead of a wet navy. There's also the fact that no army of such scale/expertise/technological superiority would have direct operational command of both air/naval and ground assets given to one sole commander besides the _commander-in-chief_ , ergo Atlas has Generals and Sky Marshals (even if technically a Sky Marshal commands both the Fleet and the MI in Starship Troopers). Now that I think about it, I _could_ structure Atlas based on the way the Terran Federation operates mixed in with AU Remnant's constitutional/parliamentary monarchy.

So.. _._ _Citizen, do you want to learn more?_

 **catze86** \- Huntsmen aren't _limited_ to their semblance. I curse whoever put this idea in RWBY fandom and I have a pretty good idea who it was; a certain King of Narutards who won't be named.

A semblance is an innate power characteristic to the user. It means no-one else may have it unless it's hereditary - how that's come about has yet to be revealed. Back on track, some people may have a Semblance that's 99% percent similar to another person's own Semblance, but it won't be identical. Now, ignoring all the stuff Glyphs can do (alter time, create ice and summon spectral beings, just to name what has been revealed up to now) what about Glynda? She can summon ice storms, fire kinetic blasts and manipulate the environment alla 'wand magic', and has a peculiar ability that allows her to return things into a state of previousness. I doubt all of that is her Semblance. Plus we've seen Ren use his Aura in offense - that IS not a Semblance, anyone can accomplish that with training. Blake too, her purple energy slash she does against the Paladin Torchwick is piloting is an _Aura_ attack.

So, not so limited after all.

 **doa570047** \- Oh. You misunderstand. When I meant literature, I meant writing, reviewing and reading works done in or translated into my language. The process is the same or similar enough across most tongues. I always had straight A's in English, but the essays we had to write in 4th of High School were, in comparison, like the ones we wrote in 5th grade Elementary in our native tongue. The essays we wrote in native by that time were some 600 words minimum, with a complete structure and all those special rules I couldn't bother to remember, with some fucked up themes and the need to express yourself like Renaissance authors?! And you had two hours (actually 90 minutes) for that, without having a clue what the theme was beforehand.

On the other hand, I usually finished the English ones in 20 minutes and spent the rest reading fanfiction on my phone and chatting with the teach. That was pretty much how I spent my 4 years of English in High School. On my phone. At the first desk ...Right under the teacher's nose.

Because everyone else sucked that bad.

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ~-~-~ ஜ۩۞۩ஜ ~-~-~ ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

 **Anime Law** **#5 - Law of Mechanical Mobility, Second Law of Anime Motion -** The larger a mechanical device is, the faster it moves.  
Armored Mecha are the fastest objects known to human science.

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ~-~-~ ஜ۩۞۩ஜ ~-~-~ ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

 ** _Maelstrom Mercenary: Sun and Ice_**

 **Arc One:** Terminus

 **Chapter Two** : Peer Bonding Before the Evening

 _"The seed of everything is in everything else."_  
 _\- Anaxagoras_

 **~-~-~ ஜ۩۞۩ஜ** **~-~-~**

After listening to the Atlesian State Troopers' post-combat bantering our blond hero, who stood not even 30 feet away from the arguing enlistees of the Atlesian Military, was convinced of one thing.

These guys were morons, every single last one of them.

Just how sure was he of this? As sure as he was that his late godfather and ninja master was an incorrigible, hopeless pervert. As sure as he was that Sasuke was a an asshole without match. As sure as he was that every ninja he'd ever meet, including himself, was unhinged up to a certain level.

No amount of evidence could make our blonde haired shinobi believe otherwise after this.

"Minor Junior Private Negative First Class Grif!" The Atlesian _Non-Commissioned Officer_ (the gruff sounding trooper carrying a shotgun along with a small plethora of red stripes going up and down over his armour, signalling his superior rank) exclaimed in a tone of voice expressing high disappointment. The AST he was yelling at had a single orange stripe going over his shoulders and could stand to loose some weight. It was the same trooper that the blond was positive got tackled to the ground by a Beta Beowolf before being mauled to death in the last chapter, "You have failed to die in the line of duty, again! You should be ashamed of yourself."

Grif looked up from where he was fiddling with his weapon to look at his superior, acting as this was a regular occurrence, "Awwww screw you Sarge! You're just jealous that your wife finds me more attractive." he replied.

At first, there was a newfound silence.

Then there was a sound of a shotgun being pumped, a shell being ejected from the barrel and the stock of a weapon being put against an armoured shoulder.

"Dirtbag, I'm going to count slowly down to three before I blow your head off with my shotgun! One..."

From where he was looking down the length of the barrel in his face the Atlesian private seemed largely oblivious to his impeding pain.

That, or he simply didn't care.

He turned to another member of Red Squad and asked, "Hmm? Hey, Simmons, isn't that actually counting up, not down? I mean one isn't above three, right? Or am I missing something here, because that sound very odd to me."

Off to the side, where he was standing before the Swamp Bog that was slowly hardening into a more solid form and evaporating Grimm corpses, Naruto face palmed.

 _Every. Single. One._

"Two..." the NCO counted on, leveling his sights against the Private's head and putting his finger on the trigger.

"Run Grif!" Simmons, a maroon striped Atlesian State Trooper, yelled hopelessly.

Grif looked back at his fellow trooper while holding his Gauss Rifle in a lax grip, his whole form slouching lazily. Naruto half expected his voice to come out sounding bored, bordering on uncaring, as his demeanor seemed largely inspired by Shikamaru. "Pluuuhease- what's he going to do? Shot me? He won't waste the ammo."

"Three!"

Sarge fired his shotgun with a satisfied smile on his face. The bang was immediately followed by a loud, girlish scream of pain as the metallic pellets that were explosively ejected out of the business end of the simpler Black Dust (gunpowder in the form of Dust) weapon nearly tore through the AST's entire aura shield, bruising, slicing into and almost killing the Private who fell on his ass, his weapon cluttering to the ground. The NCO ejected the shell by pumping the slide before taking aim again.

"Run, Dirthbag!"

Naruto stared at the ongoing circus with a dumbfounded expression on his face.

These guys did realize they were hundreds of miles away from the nearest Kingdom, stranded deep inside Grimm infested lands with no chance of rescue... right? And that the sun would fall in a couple of hours, with the moon's presence boosting the already deadly capabilities of the Grimm and offering them the perfect playing field on which they could hunt them down... right? And how they had to transport the wounded as well, which would slow them down and even possibly defend against whoever shot down the airship... right?

Even he realized what a fucked up situation they were in and he wasn't even native to this planet!

There was something seriously messed up with the cosmic balance when he turned out to be the voice of reason of any group.

He was supposed to be the reckless, charge head-first in one!

 **~-~-~ ஜ۩۞۩ஜ** **~-~-~**

Halfway around the world on a small island right off the coast of Vale there lived a young girl in her mid teens, with short cut black and reddish hair wearing a black tank top with a heart-shaped Beowolf design sitting in the middle of her chest and white long pants with pink rose designs. She was sharpening her combat scythe, Crescent Rose, humming to a rock song as she did so.

Off to her side, sitting by a table a couple meters away from her was another girl, obviously taller and a few years older than the first with long tresses of golden hair and vivid violet eyes.

She was busy reading a textbook, engrossed.

Okay, that was a lie. But she was actually studying (for once in her life), ignoring the various sounds her baby sis was making. She didn't mind the noise, it actually helped her concentrate at her task at hand, somewhat.

Plus she really wanted to ace her finals and finish her last year at Signal with top rankings in every department, because if she did that she could totally flip off her Uncle who made a bet with her, claiming she couldn't do it straight in her face.

She would wipe that smug grin from his face even if she had to stay up every single night until the tests.

She'd show him!

The first girl then suddenly stooped what she was doing, tilting her head sideways like a curious puppy when she sensed a disturbance from somewhere far away.

Her face twitched, and she drew her head back.

"Aaa-AAA... _Ach **oOO**!_ "

She sneezed... explosively so.

Somehow the young girl's massive scythe ended up flipping over her and slicing deep into the wall behind her, cutting through a decent chunk of wood used in building the house. The scythe also left an improvised window into the kitchen when she cautiously nudged it out, wincing as something broke inside the kitchen.

Yang eyed her sister warily from where she was sitting.

"Yikes Ruby. Remind me to never mention you behind your back. I don't think I could afford to cover the damages."

The red and black styled girl - Ruby - smiled sheepishly at her older sibling.

"Aha-ha, sorrrry _yyy_."

 **~-~-~ ஜ۩۞۩ஜ** **~-~-~**

Meanwhile, Tucker was snickering to himself as he watched the show with unrepentant amusement while holding his previously discarded rifle by the grip in one hand with the barrel end resting over his shoulder, pointing up. His sword was attached to his mag belt, depowered.

The 'show', as it was, being one lazy and uncaring SoB who was doing his very best to duck, dodge and evade the Staff Sargent's eager attempts to end his line. The orange coloured trooper was running for his life around the crashed airship as their NCO swung the shotgun's stock around like a barbarian chieftain from some sort of a Holovid. He would fire his weapon occasionally in Grif's direction and - despite all odds, as the NCO yearned to see Grif dead on his watch - he somehow kept missing, yelling out profane curses every time he failed to accomplish a friendly fire _blue-on-blue_ incident.

"See? What did I tell you dude? This is so much better than watching any Vacuan soap operas. They got nothing on this team." Tucker commented as he nudged the blond shinobi standing beside him with an elbow.

Naruto was staring at the commotion with a flat look on his face, refusing to comment on the man's words. His mind was too occupied with having flashbacks of the early days of team 7 when everyone was at each other's throats and were more likely to murder one another in their sleep while on a mission then their enemy.

Was this what others felt when looking at their little group?

Now that his mind was on that, how the fuck did Kakashi manage to hold him and Sasuke down for as long as he did before the duck-but got power greedy and left to get his ass raped by Orochimaru? The two pre-teen boys were practically trading blows every few hours on a daily basis, be it verbal jabs at their eyesore faults (both of whom had plenty at the time) or physical attempts to maim one another to hospitalization.

The last guy in their little group looked up and prayed for Oum to give him strength before sighing, as if the weight of the whole world was on his shoulders. Nicking a bit of dried Grimm life fluids that, strangely enough, didn't evaporate into more black mist by now from the blue stripe on his armour, the Atlesian State Trooper looked at Naruto with a face that conveyed untold amounts of suffering even through the polarized lenses of his eyeplates.

"See the sort of retards I have to deal with daily?" he asked, waving his hand in the general direction of the supposed professionals who were arguing like little children, only these children had guns, complaining to the first sane (it was a very big stretch but beggars can't be choosers) person to cross his path that wasn't so ridiculously above his pay-grade to consider it chump change, "You know, this wasn't how I imagined my posting would look like when I enlisted with my girlfriend, even if she did get assigned to the Fleet. _In Order We Serve,_ my but!"

Tucker suddenly threw his free arm around the man's shoulder and pulled him in closer to speak into his ear with a tone of cheer, "Don't worry Church, you still have me."

Church sighed once again.

"That's what I'm worried about."

Naruto gave the two troopers a look (his flashbacks were starting to get a bit too intense from all this mushy - hate - washy - camaraderie) as he held onto the strap of a rifle he'd slung over his shoulder. All of his combat tools were gone save for some ninja wire that would hardly turn out to be useful at this time so he'd picked up one of the high tech slug throwers from a dead trooper. There's no point (or sanity) in traveling the wildlands weaponless if it can be avoided.

"Get a room you two. I didn't waste most of my energy rushing here just to save your asses and to then be forced to listen to your love squabbles left and right. I swear, you guys are worse than my mentally loose team was, and we were 12."

Church bristled at the man's tease, rounding on him with his fist held up in front of the man's whiskered mug and shaking it threateningly.

His nerves were already fried from crashing in the middle of nowhere and then having to fight for his life against a small army of Grimm, he didn't need people making his headache even worse on top of his crazy, lunatic filled team.

"Stuff it Blondie. No one asked for your opinion or your help."

Naruto glanced down at Church's gloved knuckles (being physically taller), clearly unimpressed.

"Do you really believe you can make it out of this forest alive without my help, with how many wounded and without wireless coverage?"

"We've been trained for this, and we still have plenty of ammo."

Naruto shook his head, shaking his shoulder to rattle his rifle, "These things might work against Beowolves, but what about a Kongrillas? Your friend here was just about to get his head bitten off when I arrived." he paused to ponder, but no, he didn't see things happening differently.

Goofing off was all well and good when everyone around you was raised since they could stand to walk hand in hand with death, always tempting but never giving in to the Shinigami... except he seriously doubted these guys were as capable as real Huntsmen he'd been working alongside with for the last several years.

With another shake of his head, Naruto continued, "No, you'd never make it to Coalfell, let alone the closest Mistral base. I don't know what happens in Atlas' wilderness or what species of Grimm roam it, but this place is _infested_ with monsters, not all of them Grimm." the sole Uzumaki crossed his arms over his chest, frowning as he looked down into the man's defiant but clearly concerned eyes, "Also, in case you two failed to notice while fighting for your dear life, the sun is close to setting. Grimm are beings of the night. I want to get back home in one piece, thank you very much." he finished dryly.

"He's not my friend. He can go die in a ditch for all I care." / "Yep, his very best friend. Did you know that me and Church here go way back. We've known each other ever since Blood Gulch Camp." Church and Tucker responded at the same time, though Tucker only seemed to have ears for what came out of his mouth while the blue striped trooper looked at his fellow AST with a deadpan expression etched across the only visible part of his face. He hated the memories he had of that boxed canyon with a passion.

Simulation warfare his candy ass.

"That was barely 7 months ago."

"Yep. Way back." Tucker said, nodding his head in a faux sagely way.

Naruto suddenly felt he shared the Staff Sargent's motives.

Before he could lose control of his temper and slam their heads together, Tucker's apparent (not) 'chick-killer' senses started tingling and his entire stance stilled for a moment.

And then he swiftly turned around to look at the person who was approaching them from the side, at first coming out of the hole in the airship at a steady gait before glancing around the battlefield with a critical eye, eyes falling whenever she noticed a white blanket thrown over a fallen trooper.

Even though he still wore his combat helmet over his head Tucker immediately put his 'game' face on, manipulating his voice and vocal expression to sound like someone he thought wooed women easily to his bed. His act couldn't be further from the truth, "Why hello, beautiful. I knew you couldn't stay away from the Man-Dude for long! Come to see if I'm all well. Don't worry babe, nothing's gonna hurt this manly body! Bowchikabowow."

Church slapped his faceplate, already seeing a disaster in the making.

"Oum help me, I'm going tell Caboose to help him as much as he can." he whispered darkly.

Naruto looked at the newcomer.

..Yeah, he could see why Tucker was attempting, even if he was failing horribly, to act the act of a Lady Killer. She was drop dead gorgeous even in the masculine uniform of the Atlesian military, with pale white skin and all the right curves to make Jiraiya pass out with drool hanging from his mouth. Her eyes were a soft shade of baby blue and she had shiny golden blonde hair reaching a little past her shoulders. Essentially she looked like a straight haired version of Naruko, only without the whiskers. She wasn't tall but she was neither short, her height reaching just up to his shoulders (and he was just unnaturally tall even for an elite shinobi. The lady wore what looked like a modified version of the ASTs' combat armour that everyone around him shared with added, raised pauldrons that bore the flag of Atlas sitting over her shoulders, high-end looking vambraces on her arms that came with a display of some sorts and fully armored legs (and boy, did she have some long legs). She didn't wear a helmet on her head but she did carry a highly sophisticated looking earpiece with some sort of a holographic interface set over her right eye like part-way sunglasses. Some manner of a collapsed weapon was sheathed over her back, akin to a cleaver sword Raikage's right hand man used but it looked far too blunt to cut anything. A yellow rank insignia was proudly displayed on the right side of her breastplate above a white symbol Naruto didn't recognize.

She smiled at Tucker with slight unease, obviously uncomfortable with the trooper's compliments and/or advances.

Church sighed for the umpteenth time that day as he grabbed Tucker by the arm and started dragging him away from their commanding officer and towards the Reds, "Let's go Tucker, leave the Eel-Tee alone. You have no chance with her and you know it." the trooper said before, in an afterthought, he added (reluctantly) without turning to face Naruto, "And, thanks for your help... Blondie. I owe you one."

Naruto grinned, satisfied that he made one more friend today.

Alas, it wouldn't do to leave things simply as they were as Tucker was affronted by what his friend was implying.

He was _the_ man! He was!

"Dude chicks dig this body. I've been picking them up back at base constantly. Oh yeaah!" he swore even as he struggled to get out of the man's grip in vain, Church wasn't going to let his only... acquaintance embarrass himself any further in front of the woman who can have them doing anything from rubbing toilets with their toothbrushes to acting as meat shields if she so wished, "I'll have her serving beneath me in no time, just you wait! Bowchika - OWWWW! What the hell was that for!" Tucker shouted, rubbing the back of his helmeted head where Church had slammed the but of his weapon... while still holding onto him, somehow.

The blue trooper glared ahead of him.

"You are impossible Tucker. Show some respect or we'll get our asses handed to us later, all because you can't keep that mouth shut." he rebuked, tugging with a little bit more force than needed.

"Awshucks! Simmer down Church, it's all in good fun."

Naruto watched them go with an amused shake of his head before turning away, looking back at the woman who was staring after the two departing Privates with a friendly grin on his face. She copied his actions by shaking her head before turning to look up at him (his rapid growth spurt one year into being stranded in this world made him taller then even Asuma or Ibiki) and raised her hand in a crisp salute.

"First Lieutenant Arc, 32nd Atlesian Air Assault Battalion, sir!"

 ** **~-~-~** END CHAPTER ****~-~-~**

 _ **Author's Notes & Q&A Corner**:_

 **For those of you wondering who the heck are Grif, Simmons, Tucker, Sarge, Church and Caboose (mentioned) as they clearly don't follow the naming convention of Remnant (that's why they get stripes based off the colours of their armours), the answer's pretty simple.**

 **They are Rooster Teeth's characters from another series they make, called Red vs Blue. It's up to 14 seasons by now, and I've been an avid fan of them for as long as I've known Halo. So pretty darn long.  
**

 **Yes, that is Jaune's sister (OC). It's never cleared from where Jaune's from beyond that the Beacon statue has a sword like his (that's not valid enough evidence as the Crocea Mors looks like your typical longsword), I'm assuming either Vale or Atlas. In this story the Arcs hail from Atlas, since their names will be more... um... stylish, or adopted from grand figures of history. French, English and such. Atlas is the 'refined, ballroom civilization' in this AU so it fits.  
**

 ** _RWBY Manga_ : I am not impressed. Not only is it boring overall, but the art style doesn't fit the characters. **

**_Naruto's Age_ _:_ Above 20. Maybe he's older than Winter, maybe he's younger, matters not in the end.**


End file.
